DECEASED DAUGHTERS YORKIE

God, I hated this little dog from the moment my daughter said "THAT ONE DADDY" at the pound.

Laughing to myself, I began thinking, now I have to sit for two hours signing paperwork for this little shit who's going to be barking at everything. You know the saying though, "what ever baby girl wants, she gets.”

"Daddy, can we name her Sky!" my daughter asked me as I begin signing the last bit of paperwork.

Under my breath, I say "should name her little shit."

Back in the vocal meeting room, all the workers laughed at Johnny telling his story.

Any who, fast forward to two years later, now I find myself in love with this damn dog! I think it's comforting for both of us since her mother and I split, and it's hard to be an only child at dad’s. My daughter who's eight-years-old, doesn't take care of this dog at all! I believe eight is old enough to take care of a small dog, but here I am watching movies with Sky resting on me. Who takes her out to use the bathroom? Me! Who post social media pictures out with this damn dog? Me! Who bought a dog backpack to put her inside? Yeah, that's right, me!

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't just any backpack. No, don't worry, I'm not that much of a dog lover that I'd go broke for her comfortability. I didn't order a four thousand dollar Gucci dog backpack for her to sit inside, but I ordered a hiker carrier. My daughter, for an eight-year-old, has the strangest obsession with the woods and being an explorer. She made me buy a five hundred dollar dog hiking carrier and two hundred dollar boots for her to play in the backyard. I know what you're thinking she's eight, let her imagination wander! You don't get what I'm saying, though. She watches hunting shows, survival shows, lost at sea for sixty days type shows. Her dream is to go deep in the woods and explore all the wildlife. Now look at me. You'd be lying if you didn't glance at me and say I'm not the hottest mid forties dad you've ever seen.

The Vocal staff laughs again at the ridiculousness of the comical gaps in the story.

Seriously though, I work behind a desk, not in the construction field. Deep in the woods is not my cup of tea, but for my daughter, maybe one day I'll go on the outskirts. My daughter nearly made me cry one day when she played in the backyard pretending to be a hunter. I heard her scream, "DAD, COME NOW!" I bolted out the back door running to her, to only find her sitting inside a bush. "Dad, look, it's coming out of its cocoon." I sat in shock. No, not at the damn caterpillar, but at my four hundred dollar Jordans that I had just ran through mud with to see this damn bug! That shows you my child and I are two different people, but share the same love for each other.

Four years later, those memories of her in the backyard are still fresh. I honestly don't even like to say her name because it just brings me sadness. All I have left is her room, memories, and this little Yorkie named Sky. In all honesty, Sky is what saved my life countless times. If I didn't have the thought that my daughter would cry in her grave If I didn't take care of this dog, I would have given up on life a long time ago. Sky and I have been through a lot since my daughter passed. Dogs can sense when you're happy, angry, or just plain depressed. I don't go into my daughter's room often, but the reason I'm here today, speaking to your company, is because one night I found something that changed me and Sky's life forever.

Walking past my daughter's room one night after the funeral, I turned around to stop in front of her door. Trying to hold back tears, I walk inside, flip the light switch on to stare at the colorful elementary room. Colorful pictures rest on the walls, spotted blankets of different animal prints on her bed, and camping tent sits in the corner of her room. I bought that tent awhile ago, but never actually went inside because there was no purpose for me to enter. While the tears fell from my face, I stutter walked over to her tent. Crouching my 5’11,” 180 lb self down to crawl inside, and I guess I just wanted to feel her in some way.

Resting on my back in the tent, I let my arms fall to the sides, and I felt my knuckles hit something hard. I pulled myself up to a sitting position, I open it up to see colorful drawings. It was a typical elementary student style of drawing you'd expect. Puffy clouds, triangle-shaped mountains, and zig-zag lines for water, but all in all, it was her masterpiece. On the very first page, in big and small letters, read "Places me and daddy will go." I smiled. She tried to spell names of different hiking locations but had trouble, so "Yosemite" was written like "YoCemITY." Sky comes running into the room, jumping in my lap, and as I was closing it, I knew my mission was in action.

Having leftover donations from the funeral, I set my sights on a hiking excursion out of the country. Shockingly, the outdoor adventure company donated twenty thousand dollars because they heard my daughter would come into their store all the time. That was helpful in many ways at that moment. The money helped pay off the funeral and buy my ticket out of the country. The best thing was to get Sky and me away from the city and on a beautiful exploration.

There I was waking up on day three in another country on my back with blood running from my scalp. Sky is licking at my face with her little Yorkie mouth, trying to wake me back up. Yeah, not waking up to a beautiful view of a balcony overlooking a city, but the sight of me having blurred vision of a forest. The last thing I remember was the little foreign man, in broken English, trying to tell me about a fork in the river and which way not to go. I stand up to grab ahold of Sky under my armpit, and I see nothing but trees for miles.

I feel Defeated, and with barely any clothes on, I stumbled straight, hopefully to find some path. The more I walk, the more I remember what's taken place. The kayak flipped over and Sky and I were separating on that wild river. I tried swimming, but her little body kept going under and back up. By the grace of God, she slammed up against a rock, and I was able to try my best to swim to her location. I tried to hold her above the water and swim with one arm, we reached the land exhausted, but she was shivering. I can recall curling into a ball around her with my wet clothes trying to give her as much warmth as I could. That's how my ribs broke from me slamming against rocks, I thought, holding my sides.

While stumbling, more starts to come to my brain as I look down at the scars on my body. BEAR! That's where my scalp injury came from, when we came across the cubs. Sky started barking, and I couldn't tell just yet what was making her so angry. I tried to calm her down, so she didn't bring any attention, and that's when my heart dropped to my stomach. I stare off to see cubs passing by, and I knew we had to go quick. All I remember is the mother seeing us and roaring from about thirty yards away, as if she would take off in our direction. Slowly walking backward like the books tell you, I remember thinking, just back up slowly, and you'll be fine.

I was grateful that I didn't know my last step backward was down a cliff, and lucky I didn't get eaten alive with Sky. Declining down this mountain side I experienced rolling, smacking onto a tree, then a rock, back onto a tree, and still trying to hold onto Sky,. The next thing I know, I'm waking up next to Sky, who looks like she's been vomiting because we've run out of her regular Yorkie food. Dehydrated, starved, and delusional, I walk, and continue walking until I know I can get myself and Sky out alive. My daughter is in the Sky, and Sky is in my hands, so until I can reach rescue, I will not give up!

The human brain is powerful, but my physical strength just wouldn’t let me keep going at the moment, so I stopped. I fell to my knee and straight onto my face, then fell slumber on this fresh wet mud. I woke up staring directly at the sky. Am I dead? Am I floating? I must be dead, but then I open my eyes more to see three men carrying me on a stretcher. The men say, "lucky we found you, huh?" Placing my head back on the stretcher, I tapped the sides of my legs to make sure that the little five by seven black book is in my pocket.

Back in the vocal complex room, all of the employees look to see the survival father pull out the little black book and place it on the table. "Go ahead, pass it around. There’s two things I want you always to remember. One, travel the world with no regrets, and two, DON’T take a Yorkie on a hike!